Asia

Chinese dissidents

Has brave Gao Zhisheng been "disappeared"?

GAO ZHISHENG is, or now more likely was, "one of China's ten best lawyers", and that was the judgment of the Chinese government, his nemesis. For courage, he ranks at the top. Mr Gao, self-taught in law after being discharged from the People's Liberation Army, took up the cases of dispossessed farmers, persecuted Christians and members of the Falun Gong cult whom few lawyers were brave enough to represent. After documenting in great detail the state's barbaric persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, in 2005 Mr Gao wrote an open letter to President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao calling for an end to practitioners' detention, torture and humiliation. He then quit the Chinese Communist Party, calling it "the proudest day of my life".

That was when his own persecution intensified. His Shengzhi law office in Beijing was shut down. State goons attempted to run him down. He was taken into custody, beaten and charged with subversion. One torture session lasted 50 days, with police revelling in his pain and applying electric batons to his genitals. Mr Gao later published the details of this session in another open letter.

Just before that letter came out, nearly a year ago, Mr Gao disappeared for the last time. His brother has tracked down the policeman who detained Mr Gao back then. This cop has told him that Mr Gao "went missing while out for a walk" in September. If Mr Gao has indeed been "disappeared", may Mr Hu and Mr Wen be held to account for it.

oiasunset -- I'm sorry about your very bad personal experience, but religious freedom doesn't work like that. Sorry. You can't pick and choose who gets religious freedom, or else it's not freedom of belief.

To the Economist -- I'd really like to see a longer piece on Gao Zhisheng and perhaps others like him (though it sounds as though he was one of the most courageous) who have been 'disappeared'.

I think a lot of us who have never been to China or who aren't intent China-watchers get a very ambiguous impression about the state of affairs from general reporting. We know things like this can and do happen, but it's rarely personified in this way.

It's sad to see how Chinese people especially the young ones are being brain washered by their government's propaganda machines. They genuinely believe the stories/lies that were told by the government controlled media. If anyone reports any negative side of China, they think you are the enemy of the state. I hate to say if they like the way they are being treated by their government. Let it be!

oiasunset, I'm skeptical that you have the kind of personal experience with Falun Gong that would warrant your support for their being tortured and killed for their beliefs. If you follow the UN rapporteur reports on rights in China, U.S. State Dept. reports, or reports from most reputable human-rights orgs, you'll know the Chinese Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to simply brutal treatment for the "crime" of their beliefs. I've practiced Falun Gong myself and was never dragged to do so, nor was I asked to donate money, cut ties with any family, give up any of the convenience of modern life, etc., etc. It's simply a matter of one's personal beliefs. I agree with the other reader, Hictoricus. You may not share Falun Gong's belief system, but it's something else if you oppose their right to have their beliefs, or condone the Chinese regime's most brutal repression of them. Your words betray your said support for religious freedom.

Separately, I wanted to mention that the "cult" term the author has used here is what the Chinese government has used to describe Falun Gong amid its campaign to wipe out the practice. Though the group may seem exotic or foreign to some, it doesn't have the sinister, extreme, or dangerous qualities that the "cult" word connotes. Why not use a neutral word like "spiritual group" or even "religion"? Aside from this, I was glad to see this post in the Economist. I've long been a reader and had hoped to see more coverage of rights defenders in China.

It is irresponsible sensationalism and journalistic betray of Banyan to only mention Fulan Gong once in passing in the article when the guy’s case has everything to do with FLG.

The guy may be a “best lawyer” but since when elite illegal or terrorist groups on earth were in short supply of PhD minded culprits?

FLG is illegal in China, just like some ultra religious cults (terrorist prone?) are illegal in the US. It's got nothing to do with religious freedom.

Law and order is practiced in the US, Why can’t the law and order be practiced in China? Would Homeland Security forces tolerate such illegal activities in the US?

Some local Chinese police may have its share of “Abu Ghraib” or “Guantanamo” but I seriously doubt the truthfulness of the story. Did Banyan made any verification of the story even a rudimentary one? Or it was just based on the guy’s own account?

Chinese law enforcement is no saint, no body is; but the way I see it, it’s yet another reverse political prosecution against China by the likes of Banyan (or the Economist).

In the US and outside, hundreds if not thousands were kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured, mentally degraded and sometimes killed; but mostly incarcerated without trial for years. The basis for this covert atrocity is suspicion of would-be terrorists to the US. Nobody in the West said a hoot until some innocents got out and told their tales. These people are considered threats to the US mostly without proof.

What then do we think of one who stupidly want to subvert the Communist government openly without regard to his safety nor that of his family? Where does his bravado comes from; a secret CIA support?

We don't know enough. We, in the West already know what the Chinese government does to subversives and we do not approve. Nor do we approve of subversives to our own country? For John Howard, he simply handed them over to the Bush operatives. It's good we maintain some moral compass but we cannot criticize when our leaders can do no better.

china is using every oppressive state weapon in its power, psychological terror, torture, harrassment, unjust imprisonment, internet propaganda, state tv propaganda, economic advantages to members of the communist party. but the harsh reality is if the communist party in china has to run its own citizens over with tanks again to stay in power, it will.

Everybody that disappears, is murdered, jailed, persecuted, tortured or raped by the CCP deserves it, right Chinese nationalists?

Do you know that Jiangzemin and some other top CCP officials such as LuoGan have been indicted for genocide in the Spanish and Argentine courts, decisions which many Hong Kong and Taiwan leaders and legislators support?

An investigation into the alleged corruption of the most senior Chinese judicial official to be investigated for corruption since the founding of the PRC is drawing to a close. The trial may be held as early as March.

Huang Songyou, 52, is reported to have led an extravagant lifestyle as former vice-president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC). He is accused of accepting up to four million yuan (US$590,000) in bribes, according to China Business. Tied to the case is a former president of the SPC, Xiao Yang, along with several other senior officials.

Huang was under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October 2008.

Four high-ranking judges have also been investigated, related to Huang’s case, including Zhang Fuqi, Director of the Executive Board of SPC, and Bao Shengqing, Deputy Director of the Executive Board of the SPC. Li Jun, a judge of the SPC, was charged with bribery last September and sentenced to three years.

The SPC launched an “Anti-Graft Campaign” in 2009. According to the Chongqing Evening News, the number of disciplinary actions in the first eight months of 2009 in national courts was 51 percent higher than in 2008. According to statistics from the Supreme People's Procuratorate in 2009, 2,620 out of 13,000 government employees indicted on corruption charges were part of the judicial system.

Some might view convictions as a sign of progress in the regime’s control of graft within the system. Dr. Wang Juntao, a political science expert, however, maintains that Huang’s fall from power and similar cases are not a viable indicator of the advancement of justice in China’s legal system.

“The political interests of the dominant faction in the CCP decide who and what should or should not be investigated for specific crimes. With the criteria for justice based on such political expediency, it is rare that high-profile, corrupt officials are indicted,” Wang said in a Radio Free Asia interview.

Wang, a former leader of the Tiananmen Square student movement, was exiled from China in April of 1994. He went on to obtain a Ph.D degree in Political Science at Columbia University. He is president of the Chinese Constitutional Reform Association.

Experts and scholars critical of the legal system in China are quick to concur that the widespread corruption within the regime’s judicial system is mainly due to the Chinese regime’s autocratic political system.

Ming Xia, a political science professor from the City University of New York, commented in an NTDTV interview: “The problem with the CCP doesn’t simply lie with a certain government agency or a certain department. It is in the governing ideology and philosophy. Hence, it is useless for the CCP to make minor repairs or even strengthen its judicial power.”

The regime adopts dual systems in China, which help to hide corruption from the public, according to Dr. Wang. An example of this is that corruption cases involving officials above county levels can’t be directly investigated by judicial agencies. They must be first investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CCP.

Dr. Wang concluded, saying that in order to remedy the prevalent injustice and corruption in China’s judicial system, besides the abolishment of the one-party dictatorship, there must be a system of constitutional democracy, independent media reporting, and strong opinion solicited from the public.

Each year, over 1,000 judges are investigated on corruption charges throughout China. According to Trend Magazine, the reports on the investigations of at least 1,000 county court directors were made unavailable to the public by the Commission for Discipline Inspection at local levels. Not including corruption cases of the intermediate and high courts, the amount of illegal gain involved in these corruption cases amounted to tens of billions of yuan.

Huang Songyou was born in Shantou City, Guangdong Province. He became a member of the SPC judicial committee and chief of its Civil Division in 1999. In December 2002, he became Vice-President of the SPC and Grand Justice of the Second Rank. Xiao Yang, also from Guangdong, was a mentor to Huang throughout his judicial career and the chief connection that lead to Huang becoming vice president of the SPC.

the chinese problem is simplely
too much regulation, too little enterprise,
too much taxation, too little representation,
too much non-sense, too little eductation.
otherwise free economy will put an end to all those injustise.
religious freedom is just a byproduct.
Faith is just between me and God, none of any church should be part of it.

In 2008, while human rights supporters throughout the world prepared to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights, Liu Xiaobo, one of China's most prominent human rights activists was arrested in his home in Beijing. His crime was drafting a document, Charter 08, which calls for political reform in China. His telephone and internet lines were cut, and his personal papers, books and computers were seized.

Charter 08 reiterates many of the rights as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It calls for democratic reform in China and it calls for change in 19 areas, including a new constitution, an independent judiciary, freedom of assembly, election of public officials and stronger guarantees for personal freedoms.

It expresses a sense of urgency for the future and destiny of China . The document has more than 8,000 signatories including intellectuals and human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, dissidents, artists and rural leaders in China .

Charter 08 was based on Charter 77, a human rights manifesto which challenged Soviet rule and was originally signed by about two hundred writers and intellectuals in Czechoslovakia in 1977. One of the signers of Charter 77 was playwright Vaclav Havel who later became the first President of democratic Czechoslovakia after the 1989 "velvet revolution". Charter 77 serves as an example of how Czechoslovakian dissidents who signed the Charter 77 petition changed history when they stood up for their beliefs.

"Falun Gong is an evil cult, which kept telling its believers that they don't need to see doctors, as long as they practice Falun Gong and donate all their money to the head of Falun Gong, then they would be recovered. Thousands of Chinese people died of illness because of late treatment and blindly trusting this evil cult.

Germany and the U.S. are two major sponsors of Falun Gong. Of course, German and American politicians also think that Falun Gong's doctrines are jokes. And those German and American politicians see doctors when they are sick. However, Falun Gong has many believers. So Germany and the U.S. wanted to organize these believes to overthrow the Chinese government. The German and American governments & congresses gave a lot of money to Falun Gong, which still tried to organize their believers to overthrow the government."

That's a lie. I have many friends in FalongGong. I have been to meetings and know all about it.

I feel bad for whoever is being tortured, be they Falun gong practitioners or Iraqi prisoners, and I condemn those who torture them, be they Chinese police or American soldiers.

In regards of Falun gong's claims and the Chinese government's denials, the truth is probably somewhere in between. It is hard to believe that police do not torture, sometime harshly, any prisoners in China, even though the reason is probably not because they practice Falun gong. You don't know it does not mean it never happened, even though the number is likely very small compare to the total number of Falun gong practitioners.

It is also ridiculous that many newspapers report Falun Gong's exaggerated, sometimes complete false claims as facts without verifying them, even though some journalists probably did this thinking they had "good intentions". It's also funny readers who only read these half-truth-half-false stories think whoever disagree with them are being brain washed. When human rights activists disagree with Falun Gong's claims after serious research, they suddenly become "helpers of CCP". (eg. Harry Wu's research on organ harvest).

That being said, there's nothing wrong for the lawyer to defend the human rights of anyone. Even criminals have their rights and those rights should be protected. Not mentioning even if Falun Gong was a cult, their practitioners should not be classified as criminals, they would be victims and they should get help instead of punishment. This should only apply to the small number of hard-core followers, as far as I know, most practitioners quit a long time ago.

Since some people are telling readers to visit the official Falun Gong website (http://www.falundafa.org/) to learn what it is. I would like to provide some links with different opinions.

It is on page 4, a response by Falun gong follower is behind it, and here's part of the open letter:

"Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi has explicitly condemned interracial relationships and homosexuality, and has even said, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News,that gay people would be “eliminated” by “the gods.” These intolerant views are confirmed on reading a translated version of the second volume of the Falun Gong’s primary religious text,Zhuan Falun.

Beyond the issue of tolerance, we Humanists don’t support several irrational and unfounded Falun Gong claims–such as Li’s belief that aliens are attempting to over take human souls, or that Falun Gong unleashes super natural powers that reverse the effects of aging."
--------------------------------------

Here's an article from Time Magazine "Spiritual Society or Evil Cult?" which the article does not consider it a cult, but did outline some of Falun gong's ideas.

"Li's rambling dissertation, Zhuan Falun, has only added to accusations that Falun Gong is a cult. Li writes he can personally heal disease and that his followers can stop speeding cars using the powers of his teachings. He writes that the Falun Gong emblem exists in the bellies of practitioners, who can see through the celestial eyes in their foreheads. Li believes "humankind is degenerating and demons are everywhere"�extraterrestrials are everywhere, too�and that Africa boasts a 2-billion-year-old nuclear reactor. He also says he can fly."